Long-Term Moderate Exercise Combined with Metformin Treatment Induces an Hormetic Response That Prevents Strength and Muscle Mass Loss in Old Female Wistar Rats

Figure 2

Body composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA scan). The DXA scan was used to evaluate the percentage of the total body fat (a), bone (b), and whole body lean tissue mass or lean mass free of bone (LMWB) (c) as described in Materials and Methods. Gastrocnemius muscle LMWB was also determined (d). Each point in the curve represents the mean of all independent experiments carried out in each group of animals (); the growth curves were established using a polynomial adjustment (). Comparisons were made in the different ages and treatments with respect to the sedentary rats (); the exact probability value is indicated in the graph. The comparisons were established by a multivariate test and corroborated with a Student -test.

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